1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to surface grooving machines. More particularly, the invention relates to a surface grooving machine for grooving or scoring the finished face of monolithic blocks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is indisputable that the finished face of monolithic substances such as granite, marble, ceramic, and the like when exposed but to a thin film of a lubricant such as water, oil, or fat becomes dangerously slippery. A person can hardly walk without slipping or even falling-down on floors of monlithic substances in restaurants, hospitals, and like establishment that are subjected to a lubricant. However, there is presently lacking satisfactory mechanical means for overcoming the problems presented by a slippery surface of an existing floor such as those in a restaurant kitchen with smooth ceramic floor tiles.
Grinding machines for smoothing surfaces or grooving machines for removing material from surfaces have been disclosed and utilized. Representative of the prior art are the machines or devices described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,932,319 (Myers), 2,702,569 (Yelle), 2,712,841 (Simmons et al), 2,754,861 (Faurel et al), 3,517,466 (Bouvier), 4,300,522 (Henry et al), 4,702,223 (Swan), 4,822,757 (Sadamori).
The patents issued to Swan, Henry et al, Bouvier, Simmons et al, and Myers generally involve grinding machines, while the patents issued to Sadamori, Faurel et al, and Yelle generally involve grooving machines. Summarily, Henry et al teach a rotating tool with carbide bits on its face for dressing a surface. Myers, Swan, and Bouvier teach rotating tools that have spaced diamond type bits that could be used to cut or to groove a surface. While Yelle, Simmons et al, and Faurel et al teach vertical axis tools with a cutting face to score or to groove a surface.
While many of the structural arrangements of the prior art for smoothing or removing material from the surface of substances appear to function reasonably well and generally achieve the objectives for which they were designed, most seem to embody shortcomings which make them less than an exemplary design. For example, existing grooving machines with vertical axes normal to a floor surface cannot precisely groove floor tiles because they are set in grout not exactly level but at somewhat of an angle with respect to one another thereby causing the higher surface of the tile to be grooved at a greater depth than the lower surface of the tile. Additionally, existing grooving machines lack the means for assuring a constant depth of groove over a floor surface. Consequently, a need still exists for a different approach to design a grooving machine capable of grooving uneven ceramic floor tiles and other monolithic substances to a predetermined depth even when the surfaces of such substances are not level with respect to one another.